Next Mobility Exhibition to be held next week in Milan. 110 companies, focus on energy transition (and delivery of SBY awards)

NME- Next Mobility Exhibition, the new event organised by Fiera Milano, will be held in Milan from 12 to 14 October.

Full electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles, digital and AI applications tailor-made for public transport, sharing, up to the futuristic scenarios of air taxis: people’s mobility is profoundly changing and it does so with two main objectives, efficiency and sustainability. At NME it will be held the award-giving ceremony for the Sustainable Bus Awards 2023.

What are we going to see in Milan?

But what are visitors going to see in Milan? Let’s try to sum up some anticipations coming from Italian trade media Autobusweb. 

Iveco Bus will play the lion’s share: six vehicles are awaited under Milan’s spotlights. Urbanway hybrid, E-Way in 9.5 and 12-meter versions, gas-powered Streetway, Crossway LE Natural Power, Daily Access: this is the team Iveco Bus is displaying from tomorrow.

At Solaris’s stand visitors will find the Urbino electric 9-meter and the newly launched Urbino 18 hydrogen. MAN will bring in Milan a Lion’s Coach, a Lion’s City E, a Intercity LE and, finally, a Neoplan Skyliner. Irizar e-mobility will also be exhibiting.

Karsan will bring the 6-meter and 8-meter e-Jest and e-Atak, as well as the 12-meter e-ATA 12. Industria Italiana Autobus will attend with a diesel-powered Vivacity and the battery-electric bus Citymood 12e. Next Mobility Exhibition may be also the place to publicly announce the cooperation with CaetanoBus: the two companies are starting production and marketing in Italy of hydrogen-powered city buses based on Toyota Fuel Cell technology and an H2.City Power Kit system developed by CaetanoBus.

Isuzu will bring three versions of the Novociti, a Gran Toro and the Kendo 13 CNG, Otokar is to show the e-Centro C. Rampini will display the full new range: the fuel cell-powered Hydron together with Eltron and Sixtron. Indcar will show the Wing 28 P along with the gas-powered Mobi for city operations. ZF will not miss the opportunity to display the driverless shuttle build in cooperation with 2getthere.

NME in Milan: spotlight on innovative mobility

Many bus manufacturers will be present – Industria Italiana Autobus, Irizar e-mobility, Isuzu Bus Italia, Iveco Bus, Karsan, MAN Truck & Bus Italia, Otokar Europe, Rampini Carlo, Solaris Bus & Coach, Tecnobus, ZF, Voith – with vehicles for collective transport, both urban and tourist. Electric and gas-powered buses, but the event will also be an opportunity to see a self-driving shuttle and a preview of the first hydrogen bus completely made in Italy.

Among the protagonists recently on board are A2A, which will present its energy solutions, and Eni, which will bring its contribution to sustainable transport, from biofuels to urban car sharing proposals, to Fiera Milano.

NME: digital solutions for public transport

Ample space will be devoted to the protagonists of the energy transition and to IT companies, whose digital solutions, often integrated with artificial intelligence solutions, now enable increasingly efficient and sustainable management – in both environmental and economic terms – of public transport.

There will also be no shortage of long-distance services, thanks to FLIXBUS, ITABUS and MARINO BUS.

“Thanks to the prestigious companies and partners who have chosen to embrace the project, NME will be able to offer concrete answers to the demand for sustainable mobility of people “, says Luca Palermo, CEO of Fiera Milano. “For three days, Fiera Milano will turn the spotlight on energy transition, new vehicles, innovative current and future mobility systems, and thus on themes and technologies capable of achieving more inclusive, efficient and sustainable solutions. The objective is a real cultural change of which our event is intended to be the driving force and aggregator. A proposal that the market has welcomed with enthusiasm: already in this first edition NME can count on the presence of more than 110 brands, including important companies that are leading this change”.

Milan, key city for sustainable mobility

A key event to discuss perspectives, scenarios and innovation, bringing public and private together in a city that is leading the way in Europe in green and integrated solutions. In fact, Milan boasts a network that integrates buses (177 electric, 154 hybrid and 3 hydrogen), trams and metro, as well as rail and sharing services. A network that aims at increasing sustainability: thanks to the inauguration of the new M4 line, an estimated 30 million fewer car journeys per year will be made, with a drop in emissions of around 2% and a saving of 16,000,000 tonnes of oil (source: ATM).

Environmental sustainability will therefore be the central focus around which the entire exhibition and training offer of Next Mobility Exhibition will revolve. Transition that the fair will analyse from several perspectives: electric, gas, hydrogen and zero-impact biofuels, but also new mobility systems today (sharing and micro-mobility) and futuristic ones, such as urban air mobility.

In short, the two exhibition halls will provide a broad view of the technologies, innovation and vehicles that will be on Europe’s roads in the near future.

A rich agenda of conferences

The heart of the three-day exhibition will also be the extensive educational programme, devised by the Technical-Scientific Committee chaired by Professor Pierluigi Coppola (Politecnico di Milano, Department of Mechanics) and including international associations (UITP – International Association of Public Transport and IRU – World Road Transport Organisation), ministries (Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility, Ministry of Economic Development, Ministry of Ecological Transition, Ministry of Tourism), academic institutions such as Bocconi University and the University of Campania, as well as the Conference of Regions and Autonomous Provinces, Trenord, Lifegate, Domus Air, Ernst & Young, Studio Malena, Innovup, Club Italia, transport associations (Agens, Anav, ASSTRA) and various associations representing the various nuances of energy transition: Anfia, Anie e-Mobility, Assosharing, Enea, Federmetano, Federmotorizzazione, H2IT (Italian Association for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells), Globe Italia, Motus-E and Unem (Mobility Energy Union).

It will open with the conference Drivers for sustainable and innovative mobility, which aims to offer the tools to be put in place, as of now, to revive the demand for public transport.

“We are opening the conference proposal with an event in which we not only aim to analyse and discuss technical aspects, but with which we want to make clear how crucial it is now to promote a cultural approach to the topic of sustainable mobility. Only by creating a virtuous system and acting together can we make a concrete contribution to making our cities more liveable, safe and clean”, argues Pierluigi Coppola, Politecnico di Milano, Chairman of the NME Technical and Scientific Committee and curator of the conference.

The trade associations, meanwhile, will be entrusted with the task of presenting the views and needs of the major transport companies operating in Italy, through the presentation of studies and analyses covering local public transport, commercial lines and tourist transport. Space was also given to the topics of share mobility, modal integration, digitalisation of MAAS (Mobility as a service). All this on an international platform where on 13 October Europe’s major players will discuss the electrification of transport systems.

NME will also be an opportunity to present to the public for the first time the National Centre for Sustainable Mobility: twenty-five universities, as many research centres and 24 large companies, a public-private mix that immediately puts on the table an investment of Euro 394 million for the first three years (2023-2025), providing space for 696 dedicated researchers and 574 new recruits.